Disaster Management
Theories of Disaster Management
Natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and other disasters the world over have made it clear that disaster management plans and policies are of great importance to nations and populations attempting to attain any sense of security in the modern world. Despite the pressing nature of disaster management, however, there is not really a true consensus on what the most effective way to actual plan for and manage disasters is. Two overarching theories or frameworks that can be seen as in competition when it comes to disaster management are centralized planning and devolved management. As the following paragraphs will show, there are both pros and cons to each of these frameworks, however a unified approach is possible that can help achieve the best of both worlds in disaster management.
Centralized planning is a framework that, as the...
Centralized planning can lead to greater resource control and greater levels of assurance that adequate resources will be available for any given disaster, which are definite benefits (Alexander, 2007). There can be issues with efficient deployment and through difficulties caused by the bureaucracies that typically exist in large-scale centralized efforts, and some also question the appropriateness of national government involvement in certain areas of disaster management (Alexander, 2007; Cheong, 2011). These are the reasons that devolved frameworks are sometimes preferred.
A devolved or decentralize disaster management plan is one in which…
